(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to garments made from a composite fabric having superior cut and puncture resistance, and more particularly to garments made from a fabric having a combination of layers of metal mesh and textile layers of woven, non-metallic fibers, the non-metallic fibers including ones selected from the group of meta-aramid fibers, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fibers, polyethylene terephthalate fibers, a cellulose fibers, polyamide fibers, mixtures of para-aramid fibers and meta-aramid fibers and mixtures of para-aramid fibers and carbon fibers.
(2) Description of Related Art
Protective garments made from fabrics woven from para-aramid synthetic fibers such as, but not limited to, Kevlar™, Honeywell Spectra™, Dynea™, Black Kevlar™ and combinations thereof, display exceptional resistance to ballistic puncture and have been used successfully to construct light weight, bullet proof body armor. Other materials such as, but not limited to, Nomex™ show exceptional resistance to heat and are used in fire-resistant garments for personal such as, but not limited to, fire-fighters, race car drivers and military flight crew. The materials are, however, only of average resistance to cut and slash attacks and to puncture by needles. The garments constructed from such materials, such as, but not limited to, para-aramid based body armor, therefore, provide good protection against gun attacks, but are not particularly effective against knife or needle threats.
What is needed are garments made from a light-weight fabric that provides a combination of high resistance to ballistic puncture or heat or chemical attack as well as to cut and slash attacks and to puncture attacks. It is also desirable that such fabric combinations may be readily used to fabricate light weight, flexible garments such as, but not limited to, gloves and other attack proof garments.
The relevant prior art includes:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,212 issued to Andresen on Jun. 24, 2003 entitled “Protective garment” that describes a protective garment for protection of body parts against cuts or puncture wounds comprising an inner layer, a protective layer and an outer layer, the protective layer being composed of a wire mesh of woven metal wires, the thickness of the metal wires being between 0.03 mm and 0.20 mm and the apertures in the wire mesh being between 0.05 mm and 0.45 mm.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 20080307553 submitted by Terrance Jbeili et al. published on Dec. 18, 2008 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Protecting against Ballistic Projectiles” that describes a composite material comprising a multitude of masses and fibers supported on a flexible substrate arranged in a manner to absorb energy from a ballistic projectile and thereby protect persons or property from ballistic injury or damage. An array of small, tough disc-like masses are suspended in a three dimensional cradle of high-tensile elastomeric fibers such that energy from an incoming ballistic projectile is first imparted to one or more masses and the motion of the masses are restrained by tensile strain of elastomeric fibers substantially in the direction of travel of the incoming projectile. The projectile is eventually decelerated to harmless velocity through a combination of transfer of momentum to the masses and the elastic and plastic tensile deformation of the fibers. One or more layers of the composite material can be assembled to form body protective armor (“bullet-proof vest”) or property protective armor, the number and characteristics of the layers being adjusted according to the specific ballistic threat anticipated.
Various implementations are known in the art, but fail to address all of the problems solved by the invention described herein. Various embodiments of this invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and will be described in more detail herein below.